Debt relief and the scaling up of aid to low-income countries should allow for greater fiscal space for expenditure programs to create long-term growth and lower poverty rates. But designing a suitable medium-term fiscal framework that fosters a sustainable delivery of better public services and...

This paper discusses major fiscal issues faced by the previously centrally planned economies in their transition to market economies. It focuses on three main topics: (a) the extent to which the budget deficit should be a guide to policy; (b) the reforms that must be carried out in tax...

Comparisons about the role of the government in an economy are usually made by reference to the share of tax revenue or of public expenditure in gross domestic product. However, governments often use other tools for pursuing their objectives. The paper discusses these other tools, shows the...

The paper discusses the effectiveness of independent fiscal institutions -- or fiscal councils -- in taming the deficit bias that emerged in the 1970s. After a review of the main theoretical arguments and recent trends about fiscal councils, we develop a stylized model showing how a fiscal...

The paper examines the joint impact of inflation targeting (IT) and fiscal rules (FR) on fiscal behavior and inflation in a broad panel of advanced and developing economies over the period 1990-2009. The main contribution of the paper is to show that, as suggested by the theoretical literature,...

The global surge in independent fiscal councils (IFCs) raises three related questions: How can IFCs improve the conduct of fiscal policy? Are they simultaneously desirable for voters and elected policymakers? And are they resilient to changes in political conditions? We build a model in which...

Since the new German federal government has imposed tight fiscal policy restrictions on itself, a pragmatic approach is needed to finance the spending requirements of the transformation. The financing instruments mentioned in the coalition agreement appears to be suitable in principle for...

In this article, after a brief sketch of the fiscal strategy of the German Government and the current budgetary situation, it is first argued that the current budget dispute could have been avoided because the coalition essentially created the dispute through two fiscal (mid)decisions last year....

Großbritannien und Schweden haben den Abschwung 2000/2001 weitaus besser bewältigt als Deutschland. Gleichzeitig verkörpern diese beiden Länder grundsätzlich verschiedene Kapitalismusmodelle. Wie unterschied sich der makroökonomische Politik-Mix in den drei Ländern? Sollten...